Michael Jackson – Black Or White (Official Music Video) – Funny home videos are a click away
(…) The most successful jazz musician turned rhythm and blues producer, Quincy Jones, joined his immense talent with that of the leader of the most beloved of black singing groups – Michael Jackson of the Jackson Five.
The distinctive talent of Michael Jackson is that he combines the performative showmanship of James Brown (whom he imitated in his first 1968 exhibition to gain a contract with Motown), the lyrical emotional intensity of Smokey Robinson, the transracial appeal of Dionne Warwicke and the aggressive though attenuated technofunk of the Isley Brothers. In this regard, Michael Jackson stands shoulders above his contemporaries. He is the musical dynamo of his generation. This became quite clear with his highly acclaimed 1979 Off the Wall album and further confirmed by his record-setting 1982 Thriller album. The point here is not simply that the albums sell millions of copies and stay on top of the tune charts for several months. Rather, the point is that Michael Jackson is the product of the Afro-American spiritual-blues impulse, which now has tremendous international influence, thereby serving as a major model for popular music in the world, especially First World capitalist and Third World neocolonialist countries. Like Muhammed Ali – and unlike most of his musical contemporaries – Michael Jackson is an international star of grand proportions, the most prominent world-historical emblem of the Afro-American spiritual-blues impulse. (…)
(Deverá seguir o link para ler todo o ensaio de Cornel West, “On Afro-American music: from Bebop to Rap”, originalmente publicado na Semiotexte, 1982, e republicado no livro de West, Prophetic Fragments, 1988. O ensaio é a melhor história da música afro-americana do pós-guerra escrita por um filósofo, que só poderia ser Cornel West, claro.)
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Michael Jackson – Black Or White (Official Music Video) – Funny home videos are a click away
(…) The most successful jazz musician turned rhythm and blues producer, Quincy Jones, joined his immense talent with that of the leader of the most beloved of black singing groups – Michael Jackson of the Jackson Five.
The distinctive talent of Michael Jackson is that he combines the performative showmanship of James Brown (whom he imitated in his first 1968 exhibition to gain a contract with Motown), the lyrical emotional intensity of Smokey Robinson, the transracial appeal of Dionne Warwicke and the aggressive though attenuated technofunk of the Isley Brothers. In this regard, Michael Jackson stands shoulders above his contemporaries. He is the musical dynamo of his generation. This became quite clear with his highly acclaimed 1979 Off the Wall album and further confirmed by his record-setting 1982 Thriller album. The point here is not simply that the albums sell millions of copies and stay on top of the tune charts for several months. Rather, the point is that Michael Jackson is the product of the Afro-American spiritual-blues impulse, which now has tremendous international influence, thereby serving as a major model for popular music in the world, especially First World capitalist and Third World neocolonialist countries. Like Muhammed Ali – and unlike most of his musical contemporaries – Michael Jackson is an international star of grand proportions, the most prominent world-historical emblem of the Afro-American spiritual-blues impulse. (…)
(Deverá seguir o link para ler todo o ensaio de Cornel West, “On Afro-American music: from Bebop to Rap”, originalmente publicado na Semiotexte, 1982, e republicado no livro de West, Prophetic Fragments, 1988. O ensaio é a melhor história da música afro-americana do pós-guerra escrita por um filósofo, que só poderia ser Cornel West, claro.)